Tag: tips

Two words to boost your digital strategy: and then?

Posted on | by Bas Grasmayer

Repeating the same question over and over to cut through the nonsense and set the right priorities.

I regularly discuss digital strategy with bloggers, DIY musicians, managers or people running their own record label. My intention is to help people think more like startups, set clear goals, collect data and know how to act on data. There are useful frameworks for this, like the AARRR framework, but they take a while to get acquainted with.

Even in quick conversations, I want to give people something useful, uncomplicated. You’re not going to be able to go through an entire framework with sets of metrics. When constructing narratives for brands, it helps to ask the question why? over and over. In digital strategy, this question is:

And then?

These two words won’t help you determine what to do, but they will help you validate your actions and uncover tasks that might need to be completed before acting. An example:

A Buddhist rapper, let’s call him Jimi Zendrix, desires to sell more merchandise. He knows that to do that, he needs to build a bond with his fans. He has the perfect solution: a newsletter.

And then?
Jimi: then I’m going to share what I’m doing with my fans.
And then?
Jimi: then they’re going to feel more engaged.
And then?
Jimi: then I’ll develop merch and link to it from my newsletter.
And then?
Jimi: then people are going to go there and buy the merch.

Each one of these answers reveals a set of tasks and extra questions.

  • How are you going to share what you’re doing with fans? Do you have time to prepare that every week? Are there easy ways to aggregate your social feeds like Instagram? Or do you need to use a different newsletter service for that?
  • How do you know that people feel more engaged? This means you have to make assumptions, before launching your newsletter, about open rates and click rates of fans. If they’re really more engaged, you should also see it in the data in other places, so you need to have a way to track that.
  • How will you develop this merch? Can you use the data from your newsletter and other sources to develop better products? What’s the best way to display merch in mailinglists?
  • Can you track sales from when someone opens the email, clicks the link, looks around the site, to purchase? Are you using a merch shop that allows you to understand this and lets you optimize? For example, you may find that newsletter readers are more likely to buy hats. You may want to show hats first to people who click through from your newsletter, but not to normal visitors.

Loads of stuff to consider before launching your newsletter. Don’t overwhelm yourself: the lesson is what’s most important. Pick something you want to do, make an assumption, then test it. Repeat.

And then there’s fallacies…

“And then?” doubles for “so what?” We often obsess with numbers called ‘vanity metrics’, which are kind of pointless to focus on.

Try to imagine an answer for these:

  • I want 5,000 likes on Facebook. And then?
  • I want to have 1,000 visitors on my homepage. And then?
  • I want my tweets to be retweeted more. And then?

Your answers likely contain a hypothesis. You may think that getting more retweets leads to more followers leads to more fans leads to more sales. Now you have something to measure.

  1. Do retweets lead to more followers? You may want to exclude spam accounts, or accounts that follow tens of thousands of users.
  2. Do followers lead to more fans? How will you be able to tell?
  3. Do those people who stumble upon your tweets eventually convert to paying customers?

Each of these have conversion ratios. So you go from a number to a much smaller number at the end. You may determine, before even getting started, that it’s not worth your time to research hashtags and write tweets that aren’t even directly related to your music, just to get retweets.

“And then?” helps you cut through the bullshit and get your priorities straight. Don’t spend too much time on things you can’t measure or that are not part of a funnel.

Each step in your digital strategy needs to lead somewhere.

Don’t stop asking “and then?”

And then? Dude Where's My Car

Walking on stairs

Moving up the music curation food chain

Posted on | by Bas Grasmayer

Time for a quick lesson in free publicity. The increase of easy access to information and entertainment, combined with the democratisation of creation thereof, have led to the need for curation.

As an artist, you want to get your music noticed by curators, so it gets spread around further. But how do you get them to give a damn?

 

Curators follow curators

How do you think curators get their content? They follow other curators. It can be the DJ getting selected tracks from a trusted label rep, or a blogger learning about new releases through a mailinglist.

The easiest way to get noticed by top curators, is making sure you get noticed by smaller curators.

You have to be consistent about it. People have to see your name a few times before recognising you. Only then will they start giving a damn. How you do this depends on the category of music curation.

It will take time. It can be a year if you work hard at it – or even longer. If you don’t work hard at it, it will never happen, unless you hire someone that already has the network.

 

The categories of music curation

The actual dynamics differ from category to category, but the basic jest is that you start small and try to move up the curation food chain. Follow the curators who you want to be noticed by closely, so that you can figure out where they get their music from.

Some domains to think of:

  • Radio airplay: start with local and genre-specific, and slowly work your way up. This is probably the slowest process of all, since nationwide airtime is highly valued.
  • Genre-specific publications: there are dozens of decent publications and blogs per genre, perhaps a bit less for younger genres.
  • Location-specific publications: can even be location/genre-specific, like a local rock magazine.
  • Channel curators: think YouTube, Soundcloud.
  • Theme publications: these are similar to genre publications, but generally broader. Might also report on fashion, or a certain set of genres and sounds that can be loosely grouped together.
  • Live DJs.
  • Playlist curators.

There are plenty of other areas to explore, but if you’ve never really thought about this topic, then these are a good place to start.

 

The music business is a network business

You have to build your connections. Start with the more approachable curators. You can find them at events or in online communities like Facebook groups or Reddit. Your music might be really, really good, but when you hit the inbox of a curator, chances are it’s going to look like just another promo. They might not even listen to it.

Be creative about it, like these guys who wanted to get noticed by a prominent DJ in their genre:

If you’re intent on being able to arrange your own publicity, then check out the books Made to Stick and Contagious. They’re great books for learning how to construct strong stories to communicate ideas.

And a little hack: get a free Hubspot account, so you can see when people open your emails and whether they’ve clicked your links. It will help you to determine where you’re succeeding or failing, and adjust accordingly.

Why nobody cares about your free download

Posted on | by Bas Grasmayer

You spent years honing your skills. Countless hours putting together your latest song or album. You value your work immensely, so you decide to give this valuable thing away to your fans. Maybe it will even get you some new fans.

But they don’t care.

In the age of constant connectivity, free downloads have lost their value.

Music has become ephemeral

People jump from playlist to playlist, see music shared in their social media feeds, and are presented with a radio station button on each page of the streaming service they use. Research done by Nielsen asked people what they do when the music they want to access can’t be streamed: most people just move on. There is so much music one can access, immediately… a free download won’t make your music stand out.

Nielsen streaming availability graph
Via eMarketer

Why download?

There are certain use cases for downloads, and I’ve written about them below, but if it’s easy to retrieve tracks on YouTube, Soundcloud, or Bandcamp and stream them… then why would you bother with downloading? Especially when the user flow often looks something like:

  • Click download
  • Get sent to another site
  • Click download again
  • Prompted to connect to Facebook
  • Prompted to like the page of the band, label and lead singer
  • Prompted to share the track on Facebook
  • Prompted to do the same things on Soundcloud
  • *curl up in a ball and cry a little*
  • Download starting
  • Select location for your file

Is that worth it? How many times do you expect people to listen to your download?

Overused

Free downloads have become such a standard part of the strategy of artists, that it’s actually not that special anymore. Think about it: seeing FREE DOWNLOAD next to a track used to pique our interest to give it a listen. No more. Now, the only ones who get excited by seeing that are dedicated fans of the artist, label or genre.

Nobody cares about your free download

Or at least less than you’d think.

But free downloads still work in certain cases.

Free downloads can be a good way to please fans

Fans will care about your free download. Make sure it fits into a broader strategy, like I’ve shown with Yellow Claw. For instance, you can use mixtapes to hype an upcoming release and a tour you’re doing. Definitely offer those mixtapes for free.

yellow claw hype cycle social media

Know your audience

There are some easily identified types of audiences that would actually care about a free download, other than hardcore fans. For instance:

  • Very young teens who can’t afford a streaming subscription. This may be changing due to Spotify pushing family plans.
  • Audiophiles. They often complain that streaming audio quality is not good enough and they want higher definition sound, typically best offered by downloaded files.
  • (Bedroom) DJs. If you’re making electronic music, chances are a lot of your fans are also aspiring producers or DJs. Most DJing requires files, whether you use software on your laptop, a USB drive, or burn tracks to CD.
  • Older audiences. Many people in the older demographics want to be able to listen to ‘owned music’. They care less about music discovery – making music less ephemeral for them.
Important features for streaming services by age group
Source: Jackdaw Research

Audience first, strategy second

I wouldn’t want the elderly to get bombarded by trap producers. So, to avoid people thinking “so THAT’S who I need to target with my free downloads”, let’s get your strategy sorted first. I wouldn’t want the elderly to get bombarded by trap producers.

Look into the data you have on Facebook and Twitter. Look at the faces you see when performing live. Research the audiences of other artists who make similar music. Understand how they use the web, what they do, what they like, whether they’re streaming subscribers or not.

This is your point of departure.

Then set goals: what do you want to achieve? A bigger fanbase? More people at your shows? Make it tangible if you can. Now, free downloads become a method to achieve something. A tactic, rather than just something you do.

Free downloads should be something that makes people excited.

Make it so.

Further reading:

Music Business Growth Hacking 101: How to Scale Your Fanbase & Revenue Sustainably
Click here to continue

The hyped rise of Yellow Claw: a case-study

Posted on | by Bas Grasmayer

What started out as an Amsterdam club night in 2010, quickly became a global dance music phenomenon.

A look at the strategy behind Yellow Claw’s rise to fame.

rise_of_yellow_claw

Act 1: The Netherlands

Yellow Claw started out as a weekly Thursday night party in a hip Amsterdam club called Jimmy Woo. They played a sound which is sometimes referred to as urban eclectic in The Netherlands, mixing up dance music, hiphop, R&B and Caribbean music like dancehall or bubbling. Early on, they had ideas for tracks they wanted to play, but they simply didn’t exist. So they worked with an upcoming producer, Boaz van de Beatz, who has also produced for Major Lazer, to create more of the sound they’re looking for.

In 2012, these songs, in part because of their network, became big hits in The Netherlands and Belgium. The trio started putting out mixtapes featuring known and unreleased tracks. The mixtapes contained humorous intros and shoutouts that played into current events. They understood the Dutch sentiment well and played into it. Their 2013 ode to the Dutch gabber subculture is a testament to that.

They figured out how to play the hype cycle. Creating anticipation for their mixtapes with video trailers, which created anticipation for new releases, which created anticipation for live shows… It’s a closed hype loop. This is the other ingredient to their success: their songs became hits, because they knew how to build anticipation, so people would buy their music on day 1, making it hit the charts. Immediate traffic also helps a lot with the recommendation algorithms of content on YouTube and Facebook.

yellow claw hype cycle social media

By that time, everyone in The Netherlands knew who they were. They started getting attention from abroad and released an EP on the label of Major Lazer’s Diplo, Mad Decent. Around this time, they switched their mixtapes to English intros and shoutouts and later that year they had a massive global hit: Shotgun.

As someone who had been keeping an eye on them, for the love of moombahton and trap, that was phenomenal. For a few months in late 2013 and early 2014, I would hear Shotgun on the radio nearly every time I took a taxi. In Moscow.

Act 2: International

At this time they basically went on a non-stop tour. They worked with Amsterdam/Berlin fashion-label Daily Paper to establish their first merch line. The idea was not to just have band shirts to show you’re a fan. They wanted to design clothes that actually look good and make sense for the emerging subculture. They didn’t just make clothes for their fans: they made clothes they like themselves and would often be seen on Instagram and their music videos rocking their apparel.

Blood for Mercy apparel daily paper

Seeing them live in 2012 and in 2016 are drastically different experiences. Their fans are hardcore and love their apparel. You’ll find yourself in an ocean (read: mosh pit) of Yellow Claw merch.

They really found their voice on social media, too. Retweeting fans praise, running a stellar Instagram account, and a Snapchat which gives more of a behind-the-scenes look. All of these feed into their hype cycles and are great instruments to remain top of mind and to drive fans’ actions.

In a panel at Amsterdam Dance Event they proclaimed that they exclusively play their own music live. They use live shows to determine what tracks work and don’t work, and only release the ones that get the type of response they desire.

Act 3: Barong Family

Then they founded their own label. The thing I admire about Yellow Claw is that they’ve always done things on their own terms. They had always been indie, putting all of their music on Soundcloud for free, but this was the next step.

Over the years, they had worked with many talented producers and DJs to create their music, like Cesqeaux, Wiwek, LNY TNZ and Mightyfools. Now it was time to help them achieve the same levels of success. They created an additional apparel line with the Barong Family branding and their live sets and mixtapes are no longer exclusively Yellow Claw. They put the people they work with in the spotlight.

This is so in keeping with hiphop or dance music subcultures, but disappointingly rare when it comes to bigger artists with high mainstream appeal.

They’ve been throwing Barong Family nights in multiple countries and are now embarking on a world tour with their crew.

Strategic take-aways

Here are some of the most important lessons from Yellow Claw’s success:

  • Take care of aesthetics, everywhere. Present a consistent image.
  • Don’t do everything yourself. Work with the best. Their musical collaborations and fashion label are a testament to that.
  • Prioritize building an audience. This will help you figure out what new music your fans will like or not.
  • Use social media to keep the buzz going and to always be top of mind for your fans.
  • Don’t be afraid to experiment with sounds. If you have your own audience who loves it, you don’t have to compromise.
  • Figure out business models that let you leverage hype: eg. give music away for free, but earn money from live shows and apparel.

5 Easy Ways to Stay on Top of Trends (for Busy People)

Posted on | by Bas Grasmayer

There’s a certain advantage to being ahead of the curve. In an age of constant disruption, the benefits of learning about a new tool or technology before your competitors can be immeasurable. So how do you stay aware of new trends and developments in your field or industry? Below are 5 convenient ways. They just take a minute to set up.

Newsletters

Yes, it’s 2016. Yes, newsletters are one of the best ways to stay up to date on trends. Browse for great newsletters on NewsletterStash or Revue. If you’re using Gmail, you can add a +tag behind your name in your email address, so that incoming newsletters all get tagged the same way. Like so: name+newsletters@gmail.com. This helps you filter them into separate folders so they don’t clutter up your inbox. It’s called subaddressing and many email providers besides Gmail support it too.

Facebook Groups

For every topic you can think of, there’s a Facebook community. Members share relevant links relating to the topic and you may find the discussions useful too. Also, it can be a good way to connect to other professionals in your domain.

Reddit

Like Facebook, Reddit has a ‘subreddit’ for all kinds of topics, like privacy, transhumanism, freediving, the list goes on. Search for some interesting ones, subscribe to them, unsubscribe from the default ones, and return to Reddit regularly. You now have a curated page with links and discussions relevant to your interests.

Twitter

You probably already know the name of some thought leaders and interesting publications or blogs in your domain. Follow them on Twitter. See who they retweet. Follow them if relevant. See what recommendations you get to follow accounts. Soon you’ll have a constant flow of, more or less, relevant content.

You can also build lists of people who’ve posted tweets with a specific hashtag. Lists are a useful way to build more tailored streams.

You might even get to know more about the people you follow, where they get their information from, and perhaps discover a new newsletter, Facebook group or subreddit. Don’t forget about the unfollow button when someone keeps cluttering your feed.

Audible

Ever busy with your hands, but not that busy with your mind? Amazon’s audiobook service, Audible, offers audiobooks on every topic. It recently also incorporated podcasts in its app, so you can learn while you cook, workout, cycle, or shower. For a $15/mo membership, you get 1 free audiobook a month. You can actually try Audible for free and get two free audiobooks.

Here are some top notch audiobooks about the future and how to study it:

Got more? Ping me on Twitter.

Now that you’re all set up, why not learn how to efficiently share what you know on social media?

Disclaimer: yes, those are affiliate links. They help me keep the blog and newsletter running.